On Vijayadashami 1989, Balasaheb Deoras gave the annual address at the gathering in Nagpur. This page summarises what was reported about it.
The day
- Date: 10 October 1989 — the calendar date of Vijayadashami; our sources do not record the exact day of the gathering
- Place: Nagpur
- Address by: Balasaheb Deoras
What the address covered
Ahead of the November 1989 general election, Deoras used his annual Nagpur address to urge people to vote for those who would protect Hindu interests, according to Noorani, citing The Indian Express of 11 October 1989. Noorani, a critic of the RSS, presents this as the 'cultural' organisation's political character coming to the surface at a crucial moment. The address came during the VHP's Ram shila pujan campaign and Hedgewar's birth-centenary year.
Context
Hedgewar birth-centenary year; the Ram Janmabhoomi shilanyas campaign was under way.
How sure is this?
This account rests mainly on one source, listed below; details may be incomplete.
In the archive
Sources & copyright status
- A.G. Noorani, The RSS: A Menace to India (LeftWord, 2019), digitised text on Internet Archive
- Historical facts: not subject to copyright. Quotations are short extracts as reported in the sources cited; speeches are summarised in our own words.
- Commentary and translations on this page: original to The Hindu Book. © The Hindu Book, all rights reserved.
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